Newbie; To buy or not to buy - that is the question (no..really. it is)

[Solver]

Since when do you work for Firaxis ?

[Zoid]

I´m just doing my CIVic duty

[Anath]

Hey guys thought I'd make a quick stop and give some updates (if you should happen to care :P)

Played through the tutorial which was probably too easy. I sort of eradicated the ol' guy and took over the small world we lived in.

Tried a normal game on the 2nd lowest difficulty and it went pretty good to start off. Blocked off England to the rest of the world with some handsomely placed cities but I totally forgot about my capital and in a matter of turns it was overrun by surprisingly skilled barbarians. Didnt take long untill my "blockade of the english" plan backfired and I was trapped between the english and the barbarians and ultimately I had to give up 'cause I was just locked down.

However, now I grabbed some eh..thinking-bevarage and will give it a new shot.. And this time I will go heavier on the defense and less of the not-so planned running around.

Cheerios!

[Adagio]

Glad to see you got the game

Did you patch the game?

I remember when I got Civ1 and played my first games... the AI attacked my trained spearmen with their stupid tanks


You'll soon get the hang of it, if you've got some questions you're always welcome to ask

[proviisori]

The mistakes are good teachers.

BTW you can download Sweden and Finland into CIV and get into some neighbourly loving (or hating).

[Zoid]

Damn Gustav IV Adolf that lost Finland to the russians! Ruined our little empire. With Finland and Norway we´d had a lot of oil and a good sized share of the mobile techonology market

[Dale]

Hehehehe..... wait till he finds the mods. Then he'll never give Civ up.

[Alexander I]

I'm glad to see another convert come at last to "the Joys of Civ."

Maybe someone should make a documentary.

[Anath]

He-hey so much positive feedback here.

Now it's a good thing you can turn on the clock in Civ 4 cause it just made me realise I had to get up in 6 hours. But, on the other I've survived to the early 1800 and I just finnished a 400 year war with Spain when their capital just fell after some silly losses at 90%+. I fear I have neglected to much during this war but from the known civs I am placed second. Noteworthy is I survived a megaattack from my not so friendly aztec while my army was gone burning spain.

Luckily my spearmen kicked ass.


Anyhoo, I got some questions. What factors plays in on how long it will take to make something? Some times it takes me 45 turns to build Notre Dam and sometimes it takes 317 (for example).

What are good spots to build what in? In the tutorial it was "this is a good spot..aaaand this is another good spot" without really explaining WHY it was a good spot.

Yes, I patched the game the first thing I did as with all other games that I find way after it releases :P

So far I have had a maximum of three cities at a time. But when I do have that many I feel my economy and productivity severly falters. So I can maintain 2 cities with an army and research/building etc. but when I try to expand more than that I loose control. Tips/advices?

How many workers are a good idea to have? First I had an old AoE injury and made a ****load of workers that just sat there. Then I tried to keep it down but felt it might've been restrictive.

Anyway.. Sorry if anything is unclear but it's gettign rather late considering Ive been working for 8 hours.

Cheers mates

[Hobie819]

What difficulty level are you playing at right now?

What factors plays in on how long it will take to make something? Some times it takes me 45 turns to build Notre Dam and sometimes it takes 317 (for example).

If you go to the bottom right hand side of the screen there should be a button that turns on tiles. Youll see a bunch of hammers, bundles of wheat and gold.

For each building and/or wonder, it requires a certain ammount of hammers to build. hammers are the raw materials needed to build things. Anywho, when you double click on one of your cities it'll bring up a window showing your city overhead, and it'll have a few squares of land around your city circled. Those are the squares your cite is "working". The ammount of tiles your city can work corresponds to your city population. ie) population 3 city can work 3 squares).

the bundles of wheat are food. You need to get food for your city to grow. Hammers are production, you need them to build things in your city, and the gold coins are money. You need them to support your economy.

The more hammers your city is getting, the faster it builds buildings and wonders.

What are good spots to build what in? In the tutorial it was "this is a good spot..aaaand this is another good spot" without really explaining WHY it was a good spot

It varies on your playstyle. As of right now, the blue circles with the computer suggestions aren't all that great. The patch to be released in the next 2 weeks (november 10th I think?) should make the blue suggestions a better soloution but until then just experiement. Remeber the first question. You can build mines to increase production, farms to increase food, towns for gold etc... basically yuo build what you need in that city.

So far I have had a maximum of three cities at a time. But when I do have that many I feel my economy and productivity severly falters. So I can maintain 2 cities with an army and research/building etc. but when I try to expand more than that I loose control. Tips/advices?

You need to use your workers to get more monetary improvements. You can also build courthouses, banks and markets to increase the money comming into your civilization. Also, the further your city is from the capital, the more "city maintenance" they cost.

You can also lower your scientific research on the top left corner of the screen and bring more money in that way at the cost of science.

How many workers are a good idea to have? First I had an old AoE injury and made a ****load of workers that just sat there. Then I tried to keep it down but felt it might've been restrictive

It varies player to player but my usual motto for me is one worker for every 2 cities. If I play on marathon speed however I go with oneworker per city because it just takes so friggin long.

[Anath]

Cheers for all the answers!

I play on the difficulty that was automaticly set wich is Chieftain.


Allright armed with all your answers I feel a bit more confident of where I should put stuff later. I did figure out that those symbols where good places so I placed farms where there were lots of food etc. But the actual town Im not so sure about. Should you place your city on a square that provides alot of stuff or on tiles NEXT to tiles that provides a lot?

Roads. I try and connect all my cities but should I try to connect ALL my buildings with my capital? 'cause I try to order my workers to do that but from time to time they just don't seem to care what I say

That was it for this time I think. Last preparations then I'm off to work..can't get wait 'till I get home and get to continue playing

[Thedrin]

Anyhoo, I got some questions. What factors plays in on how long it will take to make something? Some times it takes me 45 turns to build Notre Dam and sometimes it takes 317 (for example).

What Hobie819 said. Note that the a size 3 city can work 3 of its surrounding tiles plus the city tile. All cities work the city tile for free.

Mouse over what you want to build. This will indicate the production cost. The cities total production divided into this figure will give you (after rounding up) the time taken to build a building.

Note that some production bonuses are available. A forge or factory will increase hammers by 25% each. A power supply will increase output by up to 50% (25% if there is a forge and 25% if there is a factory). In the case of Notre Dame, having access to stone will give a 100% boost to building. Most wonders get a 100% bonus from some resource and some buildings (such as walls and cathedrals) also get production bonuses from certain resources. All bonuses are additive, not multiplicative.

There are other sources of food, hammers and commerce ( = gold or beakers or culture) besides what your city tiles produce. Engineer and priest specialists also produce hammers, as do settled great engineers, great prophets and great scientists.

What are good spots to build what in? In the tutorial it was "this is a good spot..aaaand this is another good spot" without really explaining WHY it was a good spot.

The patch the Hobie refers to will be for Warlords only. The specific changes refered to come from a player made mod which has so far been developed for Vanilla (not Warlords). There are other changes which are also included in the mod and I'm not sure if there are changes which are (so far) onlt at a testing stage but a version of the mod which just updates the blue circles (and the AI city placement) may be available.

But it does depend on your style. E.g. if I've just built a couple of cities that wil have a high commerce output but won't have good production, I make sure that I have a city that has high production to help keep your army up to date.

So far I have had a maximum of three cities at a time. But when I do have that many I feel my economy and productivity severly falters. So I can maintain 2 cities with an army and research/building etc. but when I try to expand more than that I loose control. Tips/advices?

Depends on what you mean exactly. If this is about having a reduced science rate, consider whether you would prefer to have a total of 500 commerce over all of your cities with a 100% science rate or a total of 1000 commerce with a 60% science rate. The science slider is not the be all and end all of your economy. It can be made up for by having a very large amount of commerce or by generating pure beakers (through scientist specialists, libraries and other buildings that provide bonuses to beakers).

[Thedrin]

Should you place your city on a square that provides alot of stuff or on tiles NEXT to tiles that provides a lot?

All city tiles produce 2 food, 1 hammer and 1 commerce. The exceptions are if you build the city on a tile which produces greater than 2 food, 1 hammer or 1 commerce. A good example would be a plains hill which usually produces 2 hammers. Building on such a tile will give your city tile 2 food, 2 hammers and 1 commerce.

Again, there are exceptions to this rule. Map features such as forests, jungles and flood plains are removed from a tile if you build a city on them and their associated output disappear as well. While a flood plain will produce 3 food and 1 commerce, a city built on what was a flood plain (now a desert) will produce the standard output of 2 food, 1 hammer and 1 commerce.

The benefits of building on a resources vary. Once you research the technology required to build the terrain improvement required to access the resources (mining for gold, calender for bananas) you will get the health, luxury, production or military bonuses that usually come with such resources. But you will not be able to build the tile improvement. A grassland cow tile can give 3 food and 1 hammer if you build a city on it or 4 food and 2 hammers if you don't.

It's up to your judgement.

Roads. I try and connect all my cities but should I try to connect ALL my buildings with my capital? 'cause I try to order my workers to do that but from time to time they just don't seem to care what I say

There is a benefit from connecting your cities together with roads and connecting your cities to tiles with improved resources and (occasionally) to your borders (or a river) if you are unable to trade with a neighbour with which you are at peace. Beyond that roads will only provide increased mobility within your own territory.

I don't build these extra roads but a lot of people do since they can help if an invading civ starts pillaging your improvements.

[Hobie819]

Thanks Thedrin for clarifying that.

Should you place your city on a square that provides alot of stuff or on tiles NEXT to tiles that provides a lot?

Unfortunatly when it comes to CIV, everyone has there own playing style and it isn't common two people will play the same.

I've heard some people swear by building on top of cows and other resources and will exclusively do so because enemies can't take the resources if you have a city on top of them, unless they take your city.

I prefer to build my cities where I can get the most resources available, strategic purposes (such as making "canal" or blocking another civ), and sometimes that means building on top of resources. Coastlines are also important because if you done have them, you can't build ships. Depending on the map type you play, ships can make or break a civ.

In the end, as long as you get those resources and dont let them go to waste, it doesn't matter if it's next to your city or 2 blocks away from your city.

Roads. I try and connect all my cities but should I try to connect ALL my buildings with my capital? 'cause I try to order my workers to do that but from time to time they just don't seem to care what I say

When you say buildings I'm assuming you mean your cities or your resources.

If you mean cities: Certain technologies and land features make road building to cities not "needed". rivers between a city and a capital will connect those cities for trade. Once you discover sailing, coastline connects your cities for trade. Roads are handy though for moving troops in time of war.

If you mean resources, yes, connect them with roads. You cannot trade a resource unless it is connected to your capital (via road, river or coast). Note, if it's connected to another of your cities and that city is connected to your capital, that resource is now also connected to your capital.

You can always tell your worker to build roads where you want them built instead of using the automatic "build trade network" option.

[snoopy369]

You should never build on cows The only time you would build on top of a resource is for the strategics, eg copper/iron/horses and maybe stone/marble. Those are vitally important, rare, and likely to be denied by a militant opponent. Cows and such are nonvital, numerous, and likely to be the secondary focus, not the primary, of your opponent. They also give huge advantage to using them ('next' to your city) compared to being under your city).